What’s going on here? 111 Pillsbury Drive Midland

Business is booming in the large factory at 111 Pillsbury Drive in Midland. Streit Manufacturing Inc. purchased the facility in mid-2017. After a slow start — and brief shutdown — the plant is back up and running.

Here are the facts:

Streit Manufacturing Inc. builds a variety of armoured personnel carriers, cash-in-transit vehicles and armoured luxury sedans and SUVs for companies all over the world.

The entire shell of an armoured personnel carrier is made in-house. Workers can design, laser cut, weld and assemble the shell in about one week; from there, it goes to paint and is then attached to a chassis.

Chassis are purchased directly from Ford.

It takes roughly three weeks to build a vehicle from start to finish.

The Midland factory is currently producing three vehicles a month.

Streit also custom builds armoured luxury vehicles, such as the Rolls-Royce that they are currently working on. The company purchases the vehicle, strips it down, adds bulletproof glass, reinforces the doors, installs run-flat tires and enhances the suspension and braking system to handle the extra weight.

Each vehicle is custom-built exactly to a customer’s specifications.

What each vehicle is used for is unknown; company officials say they don’t ask for that information.

Streit’s Midland plant started with 11 employees, and has grown to 31. The company expects to have around 40 employees by year’s end.